Heads up! The Garmin Enduro 3 is down to $829, some $70 off. That’s the lowest price to date on this new device. The Enduro 3 is notable though because it’s basically a Fenix 8 Solar minus the dive/voice features (and the Fenix 8 Solar/MIP starts at $1,099). Everything else is there, and it gets all Fenix 8 software features (and, insane battery life). Meanwhile, the Fenix 7 down to $429! Or Epix at $429. There’s a bunch more sports tech deals listed here too!
I’m DC RAINMAKER…
I swim, bike and run. Then, I come here and write about my adventures. It’s as simple as that. Most of the time. If you’re new around these parts, here’s the long version of my story.
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You can use the above link for any Amazon country and it (should) automatically redirect to your local Amazon site.Want to compare the features of each product, down to the nitty-gritty? No problem, the product comparison data is constantly updated with new products and new features added to old products!
Wanna create comparison chart graphs just like I do for GPS, heart rate, power meters and more? No problem, here's the platform I use - you can too!
Think my written reviews are deep? You should check out my videos. I take things to a whole new level of interactive depth!
Smart Trainers Buyers Guide: Looking at a smart trainer this winter? I cover all the units to buy (and avoid) for indoor training. The good, the bad, and the ugly.
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Check out my weekly podcast - with DesFit, which is packed with both gadget and non-gadget goodness!
Get all your awesome DC Rainmaker gear here!
FAQ’s
I have built an extensive list of my most frequently asked questions. Below are the most popular.
- Do you have a privacy policy posted?
- Why haven’t you yet released a review for XYZ product you mentioned months ago?
- Will you test our product before release?
- Are you willing to review or test beta products?
- Which trainer should I buy?
- Which GPS watch should I buy?
- I’m headed to Paris – what do you recommend for training or sightseeing?
- I’m headed to Washington DC – what do you recommend for training?
- I’m from out of the country and will be visiting the US, what’s the best triathlon shop in city XYZ?
- What kind of camera do you use?
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In Depth Product Reviews
You probably stumbled upon here looking for a review of a sports gadget. If you’re trying to decide which unit to buy – check out my in-depth reviews section. Some reviews are over 60 pages long when printed out, with hundreds of photos! I aim to leave no stone unturned.
Read My Sports Gadget Recommendations.
Here’s my most recent GPS watch guide here, and cycling GPS computers here. Plus there are smart trainers here, all in these guides cover almost every category of sports gadgets out there. Looking for the equipment I use day-to-day? I also just put together my complete ‘Gear I Use’ equipment list, from swim to bike to run and everything in between (plus a few extra things). And to compliment that, here’s The Girl’s (my wife’s) list. Enjoy, and thanks for stopping by!
Have some fun in the travel section.
I travel a fair bit, both for work and for fun. Here’s a bunch of random trip reports and daily trip-logs that I’ve put together and posted. I’ve sorted it all by world geography, in an attempt to make it easy to figure out where I’ve been.
My Photography Gear: The Cameras/Drones/Action Cams I Use Daily
The most common question I receive outside of the “what’s the best GPS watch for me” variant, are photography-esq based. So in efforts to combat the amount of emails I need to sort through on a daily basis, I’ve complied this “My Photography Gear” post for your curious minds (including drones & action cams!)! It’s a nice break from the day-to-day sports-tech talk, and I hope you get something out of it!
The Swim/Bike/Run Gear I Use List
Many readers stumble into my website in search of information on the latest and greatest sports tech products. But at the end of the day, you might just be wondering “What does Ray use when not testing new products?”. So here is the most up to date list of products I like and fit the bill for me and my training needs best! DC Rainmaker 2024 swim, bike, run, and general gear list. But wait, are you a female and feel like these things might not apply to you? If that’s the case (but certainly not saying my choices aren’t good for women), and you just want to see a different gear junkies “picks”, check out The Girl’s Gear Guide too.
Ray, are you going to review the Bowflex, or is Iain your guest reviewer for that one?
I’ll likely be deferring to Iain on this one. I mean, sure, if they want to send one to me – I’m happy to put it through its sways, but for now, Iain will have to hold the torch.
Is Eurobike happening next week? You mentioned it in a video saying new trainers are typically announced here, but I can’t find any other info online about it.
No, Eurobike was postponed from what was this week, till late November.
Realistically, that won’t happen – Eurobike just hasn’t realized it yet. None of the sports tech brands I’ve talked with have any plans to announce anything there during that timeslot.
Instead, they’re announcing this ahead of the normal Eurobike timeslot. We saw Elite’s Direto XR, Elite’s Sterzo, Wahoo’s KICKR 2020/5, and Wattbike is set to start shipping their ATOM 2020. There’s probably a few others I’ve forgotten. However, I don’t expect much else near-term, nor any further trainers this year.
Hi Ray,
love your work, thank you so much!
Does this mean there’s not even a new wearable like a Garmin Vivosmart 5, possibily something that has both GPS and PulseOx in the pipeline? I was hoping to switch back from a Fenix 3 HR to a traditional watch on my “watch wrist”, putting a Vivosmart 5 / Vivosport 2 on the other …
Thank you again & have a great day :)
Wooh wooh, 645 update. No wait, no new features. Boohoo.
I’m surprised that we even got an update to the 645.
Some users have reported that the update has fixed the altimeter recordings on the watch, and if this is really the case, then it does fix the most annoying problem I have with the watch.
If this makes the watch less of a nuisance, then I just might be able to postpone buying a new watch until the next generation of watches comes out
Thank you for highlighting Emma Pooley’s article! It really is a fantastic read. She is simply fantastic in every way.
Seconded. Go read that piece if you didn’t already!
Yeah, it’s a great one. I almost didn’t read it when I saw Everesting – but having Emma Pooley in the title I’m like ‘Ok, I’ll give it a few paragraphs’. Glad I did!
The editor’s comments about engagement of readers around the two world records (Alberto Contador and Emma’s) is also a really fascinating bit of insight. Pooley is just so talented at basically everything she does!
What happened to The Fit File podcast?
At some point we’ll have another episode.
Any chance you’ll do an overview of your thoughts/analysis on the Garmin ransomware incident? Sorry to keep posting this same question but usually you’re all over something like this.
I posted a respond somewhere, but in short, I honestly don’t think there’s much more I have to add at this point. Sites like BleepingComputer have really good deep-dives into information.
Most of my Garmin contacts are on the product side, rather than IT side.
Over time, I suspect we’ll get more. I think the big piece outstanding in my head is whether or not they (Garmin) purposefully shut-down their consumer-facing infrastructure, or if that was gotten to as well. Based on what they’ve said, I’m going to guess they actually proactively shut that down, since they noted that the attackers didn’t have access to that data.
Ultimately, as I said somewhere else – any attacker that’s determined enough will get to *ANY* company. Especially large companies that have greater surface areas and integrations/end points. There’s various things you can do to mitigate and make it more difficult, but at the end of the day, no computer/IT security plan is perfect (and usually humans are the weak link). As an IT security person you attempt to reduce those avenues, but getting that to zero avenues is simply not possible in today’s highly complex and integrated IT systems.
Thanks! Missed your other reply -sorry.
Interesting you think they shut down customer facing side. I was wondering if you think they’ll do more to make Connect app work better without needing the cloud?
Anyways, thanks for the response here!
I suspect we’ll see better offline support. I also suspect some of the bugs/quirks around offloading more than X activities will simply happen device-side rather than via GC (people couldn’t start a new workout if their device was out of space, as normally GCM takes care of offloading old activities). I wouldn’t surprise me if that change was already pushed out via firmware update.
I think this is what Bowflex was going for but they couldn’t negotiate the rights —
link to youtu.be
Amazing!
Emma Pooley’s article is brilliant! If anyone is familiar with British newspapers — particularly The Guardian — she is cycling journalism’s Marina Hyde!
Thank you for highlighting the article by Emma Pooley. I have long been a big fan. She has an honesty about sport and an ability to express herself which is refreshing in in world where “media trained” interviews are common which, simply put, are boring beyond belief.
As a side note I hope womens cycling gets through this difficult time and emerges stronger. They deliver exciting racing time after time despite being marginalised and under funded. They deserve better from the UCI, ASO, broadcasters and all the other “stake holders” in the cycling industry.
Hi Ray, is there no more FIT File podcast? You guys have been very quiet during the last week’s or months – at least together. What’s happened? Missing the podcast…
Just saw the earlier question and Ray’s reply…
Do you think the Amazon Halo could impact Whoop? As it hasn’t been released, i don’t know if it’ll be as comprehensive as Whoop, but considering they look the same and Halo is around a tenth of the subscription price of Whoop, for the general user looking for more recovery information that might be a cheaper and ‘ok enough’ option.
Ray, thx for posting interweb stuff #2, that one bowflexed my day… brilliant stuff
First off, great video in the karoo 2!
Could you ask garmin if they have any plans for Tacx Training apps and specifically connecting them to garmin connect?
@Don – that has got nothing to do with Garmin. If someone wants to integrate with Garmin, they provide an API for a 5000USD fee. That means Tacx are the ones that need to do the integration.
The fee is long gone (officially Apr 2019, reality was far earlier). Similarly, Garmin bought Tacx in January 2019. :)
Any update on the Skydio 2 high wind test?
Not quite yet. Was on vacation for a bit, and then the last few weeks have been pretty slammed.
Ironically, last week was viable, except the winds were simply too strong – well beyond spec at 70-90KPH. I’m willing to push the spec a bit…but not when I know I’m gonna kill it.
Sheesh that’s windy. Looking forward to it, but don’t risk a guaranteed splash down for our sake.
This is more current week than last, but any thoughts on the Gopro Hero 9 rumor leaks?
I’m admittedly late to the Gopro party and was about to pull the trigger on a Hero 8 (thanks to your reviews), but now wondering if it’s worth waiting a few weeks for a potential front screen and better battery door of the 9 (at probably higher price).
I’ve seen the leaks. Albeit, last year there were leaks saying 8K recording…
And I thought all content on the internet was 100% accurate…
That’s an excellent callout. I’m sure we’ll get factual data from GoPro in the next month or so if history is our guide on new releases… then again 2020 has a love/ hate relationship with precedence
I want to go back and apologize for my comment on this thread a couple weeks back. I am sure this type of question is extremely frustrating while under embargo. I also want to applaud your ethicacy and wit in being able to reply without violating any agreements.
No worries – I try my best to thread the line!
Now that the GoPro webcam feature has moved out of beta on the Mac, is it now possible to run it and the QR code feature together, or is it still one or the other?
Also, has the ‘older stories’ link disappeared off your home page (under the five thumbnails), or was that just something I imagined?
Hmm, I think it’s one or the other still. I haven’t re-tried the QR stuff in labs, or seen if they’ve posted a new labs one.
No changes to the site, though, you can always access old posts by hitting the ‘Blog’ header at the top (or, link to /www.dcrainmaker.com)
Thanks for being a DCR supporter!
The app you link for Normalized Power states its not compatible with Edge 130 Plus.
I’m confused. I don’t think I linked to any app about normalized power (or the Edge 130 Plus) in this Week in Review post. Can you clarify?